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When you sustain a personal injury, in Santa Rosa, or Sonoma County, you may not know how to proceed. You may need to stay in the hospital for a few days or even weeks, missing time at work. Insurance company adjusters may call you and offer a fast settlement for much less than you deserve. When you call the Santa Rosa Personal Injury Lawyers, you only need to think about your healing. We take care of the rest, including communicating with medical bill collectors, insurance companies, and the defendant’s attorney. You can just focus on recovering while we do what we do best: fighting for compensation for your damages.

Do You Have a Personal Injury Claim?

Any time you suffer a personal injury, you should contact us immediately to find out if you have grounds for a legal claim. At North Bay Legal, we offer a free, no obligation consultation to discuss your case. We’ll listen to the details of your accident and give you our honest, professional opinion. You’ll work one-on-one with one of our lead attorneys—not a junior lawyer, or other staff member. If we believe that you have a case against one or more defendants, we’ll inform you of the next step. We work on a contingency-fee basis, meaning our fees always come out of your settlement and never out of your pocket.

The legal system allows victims of negligence-based personal injury accidents to pursue a claim against the responsible party. If the victim (plaintiff) can prove the other party (defendant) was responsible for the accident that caused the injury or property damage, the court will award compensation to the plaintiff. Proving negligence is the most important aspect of any personal injury case.

There are four main elements to a negligence claim:

1. Duty. The defendant owed you a legal duty of care under the circumstances. This may be a physician’s duty as your health care provider, a fellow driver’s duty to pay attention to the road, or a property owner’s duty to keep his or her premises safe.

2. Breach. The defendant failed in the duty he or she owed to you. The court decides whether the defendant breached by comparing the defendant’s actions at the time of the accident with what a “reasonably prudent person” would have done under the same circumstances. If the defendant acted or failed to act in a way that was reasonably prudent for the situation, then he or she breached a duty owed to you.

3. Causation. It’s not enough to prove that someone breached his or her duty to you. You must show that this breach caused your injury. If you can’t show that the defendant’s breach of duty caused your injury, then there’s nothing a personal injury case can compensate. If your injuries resulted from another unrelated act at or around the same time as the accident, the court won’t find the defendant liable.

4. Damages. Damages are the harms (economic and non-economic) that you sustained from the accident. They may relate to property damage, physical injury, or mental or emotional distress. The court must be able to compensate you monetarily for the damages you incurred. Damages vary case by case, but they may include property repair, medical costs, and pain and suffering.

California law mandates how and when citizens can file a personal injury claim with the courts. The personal injury statute of limitations sets how much time you have to file a claim. The sooner after an accident that you speak with an attorney, the better your chances of obtaining compensation.

Our competent and capable personal injury attorneys, know how to efficiently pursue a personal injury case using hard evidence. We’ll access police records, interview any witnesses and security tape footage when possible. We’ll hire an expert witness, usually a doctor, to describe your injuries to a judge or jury. We have the resources to give you the best chance at proving a defendant’s negligence in your accident.

Words cannot even begin to tell what a wonderful, compassionate and professional attorney Mike is. He always goes above and beyond to help his clients. His law clerk Joel is always helpful and going to be an awesome attorney just like Mike someday.

Dawn

I have been a client of Mike’s for over a year now and I wouldn’t recommend anyone else. He was always 100% honest, never sugar coated, told you worst case scenario but worked very hard to ensure the best results possible. Mike was a HUGE help in my case and honestly, without his help my case would have ended in disaster.

Santa Rosa Personal Injury Lawyers

Those injured in an accident due to the negligence of another person should receive the financial aid they need to get their life back on track. We can do that. Based in downtown Santa Rosa, we also serve Sonoma County and other surrounding areas.

Why File a Personal Injury Claim?

An insurance adjuster’s promise of a fast and easy settlement for your injuries may be tempting. However, pursuing a personal injury claim gives you an opportunity to settle for more. At North Bay Legal, we promise to try to get you the best settlement possible. In many cases, we can achieve a satisfactory settlement without having to go to court. However, if your case does go to court, we have the skill necessary to present your case to a judge and jury.

Filing a personal injury claim is the only way a court will recognize the defendant’s negligence and award you economic and non-economic damages. The recovery you may receive by filing a claim includes payments for damages such as:

Past, present, and future medical bills. This includes the costs of hospital stays, tests, surgeries, medical equipment, and any at-home medical care. If you suffer permanent damage from an accident, such as a disability, medical bill compensation will cover lifelong costs.

Lost wages. Part of economic damage compensation is the price of your lost wages for missing work due to your injury. This may include the price of a lost promotion, if applicable. If your injury causes lost capacity to earn, the defendant must also compensate you for this loss.

Property damage. If the accident damaged your property, such as totaling your car in a vehicle collision, the defendant must pay to repair or replace the damaged property. This includes personal and real properties.

Pain, suffering, and emotional distress. Pain and suffering describes your personal trials and tribulations due to the injury. The court calculates pain and suffering by looking at your total economic damages and multiplying that amount by a “pain” number. Emotional distress refers to any anxiety, fear, post-traumatic stress disorder, or other mental health issue the accident caused.

You also may be eligible to receive punitive damages if the defendant’s negligence was gross or extreme. For instance, monetary compensation in a wrongful death lawsuit can include funeral and burial expenses, loss of consortium, and a family’s mental anguish.

Insurance adjusters work for insurance companies, not for you. It’s their job to get you to settle for as little as possible to save money. Your attorney, on the other hand, works for you—and you alone. When you partner with North Bay Legal, you’ll be 100% sure that we’re working for your best interests. We don’t get paid unless you do. That means that we’ll work our hardest to get you the best settlement possible.

Types of Personal Injury Accidents

A personal injury accident can take many shapes and forms, from tripping over an uneven sidewalk and breaking an arm to the neighbor’s dog biting you. Traumatic accidents can occur anytime and anywhere. If you sustain a personal injury in Sonoma County, trust North Bay Legal, to represent you. Our office in Santa Rosa has helped dozens of citizens seek justice for personal injuries.

In 2013, car accidents killed or injured 1,596 Sonoma County residents. The number one cause of car accidents is driver negligence (distraction, inattention, or reckless driving). If a driver was intoxicated, texting and driving, or otherwise driving in a way that endangered others, reach out to an attorney. California abides by “shared fault laws,” meaning the court will assign fault to both parties based on a percentage system. The courts must find you less than 50% at fault to award you compensation for your injuries.

According to these shared fault laws, you’ll receive your compensation after the court subtracts your percentage of fault. For example, if you’re 10% at fault for an accident with $100,000 compensation, you’re eligible to receive $90,000. California’s comparative fault laws make it important for an accident victim to hire skilled attorneys to bring his or her percentage of fault down as low as possible.

Your Sonoma County Personal Injury Experts

Personal injury laws vary by state and sometimes by county. For example, California’s dog bite law mandates that a dog’s owner is strictly liable in most dog bite cases. In other states, a dog bite victim must prove that the owner knew or reasonably should have known about the dog’s violent tendencies to obtain compensation for injuries. California’s strict liability laws make it easier to win a case against a negligent owner. Every personal injury accident is different and requires the careful attention of an experienced local attorney.

If you’ve sustained an injury in the Sonoma County region, you need local attorneys to come to your aid. North Bay Legal has more than 40 years of combined legal experience. We know exactly how the legal system works throughout North Bay and Wine Country. We’ll walk you through the investigation, settlement negotiations, litigation, and jury trial processes.

If you’re ready to speak with attorneys who keep their clients top priority, call North Bay Legal at (707) 321-5287 to request a free consultation. With backgrounds as crime scene investigators, detectives, prosecutors, and accident reconstructionists, we have the range of expertise you need to pursue a claim. Our attorneys are effective during every stage of the settlement process, in and out of the courtroom. Contact us today to start your journey toward justice.

We provide effective representation and fight aggressively for our clients. Most importantly, we are committed to keeping our clients as top priority. Contact us today to see how we can help you get the most compensation for your losses.